What is unusual about the sacred river alph

Lines Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. The speaker begins to describe the geography of Xanadu. He starts by introducing us to the River Alph. There's certainly no river in Mongolia by this name. Some scholars think that this is an allusion to the river Alpheus, a river in Greece that was made famous in classical literature. The name "Alph" might also make us think of the Greek letter "Alpha" which is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and a symbol of beginnings.

These associations, and the fact that the river has a name at all, really make the Alph stand out in the beginning of this poem. Notice how Coleridge is already stepping away from history: he is transforming this place, this person, and this story into his own creation.

If this is partly an imaginary landscape, how does the poem's speaker make it look and feel? When he talks about "caverns measureless to man" we get a sense that this landscape is both huge and unknowable. That slightly spooky feeling continues when we get to the "sunless sea. It also gives us a sense of being in an imaginary landscape, because where else could a sea always be "sunless" and never bright or cheerful, or any of the other things a sea can be?

Also, check out how much shorter line 5 is than all the others. In a poem where all the lines have a carefully planned length, short lines stand out and make us take notice.

It makes this image just a little lonelier. It also makes this line into more of a dead end, a stopping place, just like the sea is for the River Alph. Lines So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

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